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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24840592">doctors checking out doctors</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rescue_Remedy/pseuds/Harmonica_Smile'>Harmonica_Smile (Rescue_Remedy)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Law's Hybrid Collections [11]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>One Piece</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Hospital, Birthday, Canon Related, Complete, Except it's a medical conference, Guest Appearances from not-so sexy doctors, M/M, Mid-Timeskip, October birthdays, One Piece Doctors, One Shot, Post-Marineford, Pre-Relationship, Rare Pairings, Slice of Life, Two Sexy Doctors</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2019-10-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2019-10-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 05:47:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,446</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24840592</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rescue_Remedy/pseuds/Harmonica_Smile</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>October 7: At the annual convention of doctors checking out doctors, Marco and Law steal away for some quiet conversation and post birthday drinks.</p><hr/><p>Backdated to October 7, 2019. Re-uploaded.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Fushichou Marco | Phoenix Marco/Trafalgar D. Water Law, Tashigi &amp; Trafalgar D. Water Law</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Law's Hybrid Collections [11]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1157702</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>doctors checking out doctors</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><br/>Notes:</p><p>Set maybe about six months before Punk Hazard. Law isn't a warlord at present, but maybe he'll soon be one. Not part of the <i>Repossession</i> world.<br/></p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><br/>
</p><p>At the annual convention of doctors checking out doctors checking out research and reining egos in—or letting their freak flag fly (Hogback and Walpol were both there, after all)—Marco and Law stole away. Without their crews. Between battles.</p><p>Law really needed a break from all that rescuing of Strawhat, and meticulous planning. Marco also really needed a break from all that rescuing of Strawhat. And grieving. And from surges of vengeance-driven urges.</p><p>Loss was as regular a companion as Kikoku resting against the Heart captain's shoulder for them both.</p><p>It wasn't that Law didn't want his crew with him at the conference. They were medicos as well in their own manner and styles. Pamphlets on disinfection, methods of stitching, demonstrations on bone setting—there was bound to be something for them, but the Heart-communal kitty just didn't stretch that far. Law would pass on techniques and useful information.</p><p>But the Hearts needed R&amp;R too, so while he wandered rooms inspecting mortars and powders and herbs and pestles, and listened to how science could intertwine with Devil fruits, or not, Bepo and Shachi and Penguin and Ikkaku—and co.—roamed the island, licking ice creams, flicking through magazines, stocking up on supplies.</p><p>It was harder for Marco's shipmates to partake. His crew, Whitebeard's crew, crews—assembled and disassembled alike—were still sorting themselves out after the Payback War. A huge task. And they weren't a floating surgery. As the head doctor for so many, new techniques would help him and them when they eventually regrouped, if they ever did. He'd taken time out. A welcome respite. He'd take the skills with him when he returned to Pop's island.</p><p>Law glanced down at the registration package. Belladonna brushed past. A tilt of her chin acknowledged that she might remember him from Amazon Lily.</p><p>Elder Nyon ushered her through, steadfastly ignoring the surgeon. He cast an eye around for Boa Hancock but the hall remained devoid of beauty and of men turned to stone. Law viewed the envelope in his hands. <em>Marco the Phoenix</em>, age: 44. A tic spasmed along his cheek.</p><p>He looked up, sighed, no big deal. Doctors relied on their staff for organisation. It was to be expected that a conference full of practitioners and specialists had its own type of chaos. Mix-ups.</p><p>Law had studied all the devil fruits, of course. He studied everything. Forty-four? Must be something in those flames of restoration that kept that zoan fresh. Then again, Marco's cohort, Doflamingo, Shanks, Crocodile—all those guys who'd been terrorising the seas since forever—maintained their youth. He knew Doflamingo was intent on keeping his boyish good looks forever.</p><p>Even so, a smattering of wrinkles and a few threads of grey hair ticked a few boxes for Law. He'd had a tryst with the wrong kind of cigar-chomping marine on occasion. <em>Pfft</em>. As if there was a right kind. Cora. That was it.</p><p>Average age of death was 121 years for humans across all the lines. So he guessed they were still all babies—Hero Garp just now a little past middle age at seventy-seven if those marine puff pieces were to be believed.</p><p>An envelope tapped his elbow, and Law made sure not to jump. He moved toward the source. The man himself. Law had to look up. He leant back against the wall. Not as annoyingly tall as that Dressrosan bastard, or that redhead yabber-mouth, Eustass-ya, but he still had to lift his gaze.</p><p>Nothing gaudy about him. Impractical, perhaps. Like Strawhat. Those sandals. As if heading out to the beach rather than being on an island just a few ocean trenches away from a winter clime.</p><p>"This is yours." Law didn't know what Marco referred to, but nodded as the Whitebeard pulled the paper clear from where it tapped his skin. Marco peered down and read, "Twenty-five, eh? Child genii order of the day where you're from, Surgeon of Death?"</p><p>Law looked him over. Supple. Compact. Muscled. Fit. Lethal. He shook his head, eyes shadowed under his hat's brim.</p><p>"The doctor on Mugiwara's crew's even younger, I hear." Still a child. Law lifted his face, features more apparent. He turned Marco's envelope. "Your powers grant you perpetual youth, Marco the Phoenix? Forty-four?"</p><p>Marco leant against the wall next to Law, legs sticking into the corridor, ankles crossed. Law moved minimally to make room.</p><p>"Hah, don't make me blush. Silver eyes and silver tongue?" He sneaked a peek at the North Blue rookie. Or were there splinters of gold in them? "Wonder what Doctor Kureha's registration says? And isn't it natural to look young at forty-four?"</p><p>"She'll let you know." She'd regaled Law with her age, youth, and ability to drink anyone under the table, when she'd freed a bottle of rum from his backpack. For medicinal purposes, she'd winked.</p><p>The two pirates swapped the papers and checked the date of the convention—October 7—and scanned each other's information, gaze lighting on muscled forearms, and hands that had seen as many fights as forceps, before returning to their own forms.</p><p>Old enough to be his very young father, Law thought. But time was borrowed and opportunities were for the seizing.</p><p>"Oh, by the way—" Maybe Marco wanted to be clear. No accusations of gaslighting later. But, hell, a pirate was a pirate, even when he was a doctor.</p><p>"I'm not really—" Maybe Law just wanted to mention the number to bring the gap a little closer. That magenta sat well. The shin decoration intrigued him.</p><p>Both stared at the other for a beat. Law looked away first, Kikoku relaxed, but not absent. "The crew makes such a fuss. It's good to have a quiet day," he mumbled, one hand checking through his pockets, the other holding the conference information to his chest, the sword tucked into the crook of his arm.</p><p>"I forget every year. Kinda like it's great when people do nice things on run-of-the-mill days; shouldn't have to be a special day to be nice to someone, y'know?" Marco spoke to his feet stretched out in front.</p><p>Marco was just thinking aloud?</p><p>"Never celebrate it."</p><p>Wait, Law was talking about…? Was he even talking to him?</p><p>"Sometimes I do," Marco said. "Birthday's October 5th. Wanna drink? Think I'm forty-five now."</p><p>Law eyed him once more. Marco wasn't even trying, and his resting strength blasted heat into the brick wall. "Twenty-six." Law flexed his hands, the back tattoos black against the small blue dome rising below them. "Never thought I'd make it this far."</p><p>Call and response. A blue flame rested across the back of Marco's hand like a rat waiting to be petted. It drew Law's attention. Pretty. "October 6," he said. "I don't tell everyone." Hardly anyone.</p><p>Ah, not too much cradle-snatching then, Marco thought, especially considering Law's peat-smoked, tannin-charred, whiskey barrel tone. Had passed maturation and eased into a savoured mouthful.</p><p>Doc Q stumbled by, almost tripping over Law's boots. Long legs. Right in the hall way. Marco tensed. Law remained slouched against the wall, but slid his hand along the nodachi's scabbard. Marco let out a breath. Not yet. Law relaxed.</p><p>The Heart captain wasn't soused like that. Doc Q was well on the way to putrefaction. Bleary-eyed, he glared at them, but sloshed away without recognising them.</p><p>Not here. Not these few days at this time of the year. Marco wasn't here on that kind of business. He straightened and turned his back to the passing attendees, and—arms crossed, envelope held loosely between the tips of his fingers—focused on the surgeon. Luffy's rescuer. Already a few lives lived and lost under that ink for sure.</p><p>Maybe it'd be conversation and a drink. Maybe a drink and a bit more. But, any sensible interaction away from Walpol and Hogback's posturing was a blessing. Kureha would drink them under the table, so best to avoid her too, and she'd hang out with Crocus anyway. Marco couldn't handle seeing Doc Q again today.</p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Twenty-three and one day today. Yesterday, twenty-three. Tashigi pushed the door to the bar open. No great swords were crafted on her birthday. Not that it mattered. Great swords were timeless. To her the date was a muscle spasm. You hardly thought about its purpose until it burped in public.</p><p>A drink wouldn't hurt though. A drink for her birthday. And she'd got promoted. That was worth a drink. Just one. Not too much. Her birthday. Meh. A captain. Yeah!</p><p>At the bar she ordered a hot coffee. It was her favourite anything, and it was for her belated birthday. A thimbleful of hazelnut liqueur was set beside it. Sipping without thinking, she drank half down. Smooth.</p><p>"It's for the coffee," the barkeep said.</p><p>"I didn't order it." She returned it to the counter with a quick thump. Her glasses steamed up, so she placed them next to the glass.</p><p>"Gentlemen at the side table." He jerked his head their way. "Bought a little of something for everyone in the tavern." There was one drunk passed out on the counter, the marine, and the two pirates themselves, cosied away in a corner. Awfully generous of them.</p><p>"Oh, delicious." Tashigi drank the rest. Shouldn't, but, so good. She wiped her glasses, replaced them, surveyed the bar.</p><p>A flash of blue like the colour rumoured to have illuminated port towns from North Blue to the Grand Line lit up. A fiery crackle of flames—in sight, they made no sound—brought Marineford screaming into the pub.</p><p>The shades subsided and one of the <em>gentlemen</em>, the one wearing some kind of spotted hat, spoke and had the blond laughing. They lifted glasses, a tumbler and a pint, and—</p><p>"Happy birthday."</p><p>—tattoos.</p><p>Hand on Shigure, she stared at the Surgeon of Death as he met her scowl, and reached for that long sword. The blond peered over his shoulder. The First Division Commander. Anyone could walk up on them. Sitting ducks. Were they so arrogant, one thought he could sit with his back to the door?</p><p>She noticed the envelopes stamped with the conference's name. Or was it that they believed attending a doctors convention brought some kind of amnesty from attack and prosecution? Marco was a doctor?</p><p>She stood. Hadn't drawn her sword yet. "Birthday?"</p><p>Law sighed. He never told anyone. Every time he let his caution recede some marine charged in and fucked it all up.</p><p>"Room."</p><p>Marco put out his hand and pushed Law's down, and Law glowered. He better know what he was doing. A few drinks didn't make them best friends.</p><p>"You were at Marineford," Marco said, turning around fully.</p><p>Tashigi nodded.</p><p>"You fought well."</p><p>So had Marco. For a pirate. She couldn't admit it, even now, but she'd held out hope that the submarine that whisked Monkey D. Luffy away—the boy who'd saved the people of Alabasta—had escaped. Smoker slammed the paper with the photo of Strawhat ringing the Ox bell at Marineford on the desk for her to read, but had said no more.</p><p>If they were going to bring him in, let them do it fairly. Smoker had stormed outside, but she knew it was to hide the twinge of relief he couldn't disguise.</p><p>"Birthday?" That liqueur warmed her belly.</p><p>Law groaned and pulled his cap lower, but Marco nodded.</p><p>"His yesterday, mine the day before."</p><p>Tashigi made sure to remember. "Mine too. October six. I never tell anyone."</p><p>"Birthday gift?" Marco asked. Shot her his best rapscallion smile. Took in his sullen companion. Guessed Law didn't sweet talk his way out of too many situations. It was a gamble. Marines weren't employed for their sentimentality.</p><p>"My silence?"</p><p>"Don't chase us. Enjoy your drink. We'll scarper, as quiet and forgotten as the day we came into this earth." The day was forgotten. They sure as hell weren't.</p><p>Law tipped back his beer. If he was going to fight and not be arrested, he wanted to finish it first.</p><p>The barkeep tapped Tashigi's cooling coffee with a teaspoon. She glanced over.</p><p>"They're too strong. Really. Please don't break up my business."</p><p>The marines paid up but the red-tape took forever. Craftsmen were in short supply and everything took time. Whenever there was a bust-up he bled beri.</p><p>"We're here for the Doctors' convention. Healing, not harming," Marco said. He almost let her in on his devil fruit ability, but if they didn't know already, it was best to leave them in the dark.</p><p>Benign for how long? Tashigi, shrugged. Then again, birthdays. Celebration. She slipped back into her seat, tipped the new drink into the coffee and stirred it. Didn't even think to ask where the replacement had come from. She drank it slowly. She was twenty-three. A captain. Trafalgar Law and she were born on the same day.</p><p>Swords and birthdays abounded, that was the nature of things. Blades fell into the wrong hands and her mission was to rescue them. She couldn't deny pirates their wish to ignore or not even notice their dates of birth. Nor could she deny them a wish to celebrate in a nook of the room, in a bar on a hushed cobbled street, well away from the business of research, from the sleek bustle of the city, from duty-bound paths of reprisal.</p><p>She turned the shooter glass and the barkeep filled it without asking. The liqueur wasn't terribly strong, but neither was Tashigi. She felt almost brave enough to call up Hina, to ask her out for a drink, and to maybe even celebrate her promotion. She could let slip she'd had a birthday. Smoker-san? She smiled to herself. He'd scold her for being there. For making a fuss over nothing.</p><p>She didn't hear the door click shut. She drank her third without coffee, then twisted to the side of the bar. What had she seen? Pirates toasting one another, exchanging birthday greetings in well-modulated tones? Just an excuse to drink, she understood that. She lifted her glass to the empty chairs. "Happy birthday, pirate scum." They'd get them. All the fun was in the chase.</p><p>She pulled out her meito guide and didn't think there were any long swords mentioned, but it had an appendix, and the tassels and patterning of Trafalgar's weapon was unusual. She raised a finger and another drink appeared like magic. The owner was happy. The two had paid ahead and would cover the now-captain. In the past she'd forgotten to ask for the bill, and rushed in the day after with cash, all red cheeks and apologies. Not that she drank often.</p><p>Someday she'd meet that sword again, she knew it.</p><p><br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p><b>Thanks</b> for reading. If you've read <i><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/15176651">Payback</a></i>, this might be the conference mentioned where Law and Marco first met, though it doesn't quite match the timeline. I'm probably off with my ages, because I've just read canon Payback was about a year after Marineford. Agh, some retro-editing ahead. Think I've fixed it!</p><p>Might still work with the ages I've used. We don't know when Law became a shichibukai, but for the purposes of this story, it's after he turns twenty-six. Being an October kid, it could still be in the time-skip. So, yeah, this is set just before they all turn their canon ages. I could take a year off those ages again to make it work if it doesn't. </p><p>Also, very slight hints of SmoLaw in there.</p><p>Oh, I read in an SBS somewhere that the One Piece folk live to quite old ages. I can't remember exactly, and Doctor Kureha is still an exception!</p><p>Would love to know your thoughts. If you liked it please leave a kudos to help other readers find the fic (plus I like them too :-)).</p><hr/><p>Subscribers, I'm sorry to be the deleting and re-uploading queen. Totally my own insecurities at play. I hope I've worked this so a notification won't go out, but it might. Apologies if it does. I have a number I'm going to re-upload. There seems to be some increased interest in MarLaw on tumblr, so I'll upload so there is a bit of content out there.<br/>My <a href="https://chromatic-lamina.tumblr.com/">tumblr</a>.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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